Review: Zayn re-introduces himself on debut 'Mind of Mine'

He may have just dropped his first solo album, but Zayn Malik is keeping his cool. On top of the debut of Mind of Mine , the 23-year-old former One Direction crooner marked his big day with the release of a new music video for his single.
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Zayn Malik's debut album 'Mind of Mine' is out Friday.(Photo: John Salangsang, John Salangsang/Invision/AP)

Somewhere in between wearing color-coordinated outfits in One Direction and posing shirtless on hip magazine covers, Zayn Malik shed his last name; bulky, uncomfortably nostalgic, irrelevant.

As the first and only member to depart the multimillion-dollar global industry that is 1D, Zayn has spent the year since carving out a new prototype for early-20s stardom: gratuitous tattoos, supermodel girlfriends, snippets of songs teased out to hungry fans on Snapchat.

Mind of Mine (*** out of 4), Zayn’s debut solo album, finds the 23-year-old establishing his footing in the R&B world he left pop stardom to join, with an ambitious statement: 18 songs about nebulous love, irresponsible nights and the trappings of youth. A step away from boy-band coyness towards darker beats and more brazen sexuality, it’s an almost-mature and fully contemporary-sounding work that carries over one important aspect from his 1D days: that sublime voice.

At their best, One Direction were master imitators of pop’s most iconic styles, their albums jukebox-esque collections of Paul Simon and Fleetwood Mac and hair metal nostalgia. On Mind of Mine, Zayn shows himself to be a similarly-dedicated student of a more recent era; its shadowy R&B and disco-winking references are firmly planted in the present, as he takes cues from newfound peers such as The Weeknd, Miguel and Drake.

The seemingly-obvious narrative of Mind of Mine is the former boy bander’s sexual rebellion.From the his first decipherable lyrics, Pillowtalk’s sordid opening lines, Zayn makes clear: this isn’t a 1D record. But that doesn’t mean Zayn pushes away the younger female fans who grew up loving One Direction and have since aged into his newly-realized maturity, mostly treating his songs’ female companions with compassion.

(Warning: NSFW language)

He opts out of the predatory instincts underlying the 3 a.m. come-ons of contemporary R&B even while embracing its sonic cues, steering clear of The Weeknd’s sadistic undercurrents and Drake’s selfish confessional booths. Even when he’s admitting his faults and engaging in bad behavior, urging away a potential flame on Rear View or trading conflicted come-ons with Kehlani on Wrong, when he sings “we,” he seems to means it.

It’s hard to fault Mind of Mine for its stacked opening run of songs, its mood swinging from the swooping ballad It’s You to Befour’s dark shuffle and the appropriately-woozy Drunk. But maintaining momentum over 18 tracks is a struggle for even seasoned artists, and Mind of Mine's second half falls into a hazy lull, like a new friend who lingers longer than they should to make sure their absence will be noticed.

The moments that do stray from Mind of Mine’s gloom-funk aesthetic, carefully cultivated by producer Malay (the man behind Frank Ocean's Channel Orange), are charming detours— like the classic pop pianos on Fool For You, the closest the album gets to 1D nostalgia. As the saying goes, you can take the boy out of the boy band…

Mind of Mine succeeds as a catchy, sexy and fully modern take on contemporary R&B. But listeners can hear Zayn’s true departure from 1D not in his stray profanities or cloudy beats, but in the quiet few moments of Intermission — Flower, a warbling interlude sung in Urdu, the language of Zayn’s father. Its guitar-picking and plainly sung melody couldn’t likely find its way onto a One Direction tracklist, and yet, it’s here.

In the middle of his debauched, disco ball-lit coming-out party, it’s our truest introduction to a new realization of Zayn, sans last name.